Panchkula, April 28 -- Four youths - two boys and two girls - have been booked for allegedly setting fire to a protected pine forest area in Morni and misbehaving with a forest guard who attempted to intervene. The accused were later apprehended at a police checkpoint with their vehicle.

According to the complaint filed by divisional forest officer (DFO) Vishal Kaushik of the Morni-Pinjore forest division, the incident took place near Balag Mod village, Morni. A vehicle entered the protected forest area, where the group smoked cigarettes. One of them allegedly threw a burning cigarette into the dry pine forest of compartment number 132, triggering a forest fire.

Forest guard Sanjeev Kumar, who was patrolling the area, noticed the group....